This multi-disciplinary volume draws on the combined expertise of specialists in the history and literature of medieval Ireland, Iceland, Norway, and Scotland to shed new light on the interplay of Norse and Gaelic literary traditions. Through four detailed case-studies, which examine the Norwegian Konungs skuggsjá, the Icelandic Njáls saga and Landnámabók, and the Gaelic text Baile Suthach Sith Emhna, the volume explores the linguistic, cultural, and political contacts that existed between Norse and Gaelic speakers in the High Middle Ages, and examines the impetus behind these texts, including oral tradition, transfer of written sources, and authorial adaption and invention. Crucially, these texts are not only examined as literary products of the thirteenth century, but also as repositories of older historical traditions, and the authors seek to explore these wider historical contexts, as well as analyse how and why historical and literary material was transmitted. The volume contains English translations of key extracts and also provides a detailed discussion of sources and methodologies to ensure that this milestone of scholarship is accessible to both students and subject-specialists.

‘This is a brilliant and genuinely ground-breaking book, representing a significant step forward in literary and historical analysis of the Norse-Gaelic interface’. (Professor Ralph O’Connor, University of Aberdeen).

Contents

List of Illustrations

Note on Orthography of Names

Preface

Chapter 1: Norse–Gaelic Contacts in a Viking World: Concept and Context

Chapter 2: The ‘Wonders of Ireland’ in Konungs skuggsjá: Text, Sources, Context

Chapter 3: Baile Suthach Síth Emhna, a　Poem to Raghnall, King of Man: Text and Context

Chapter 4: The Battle of Clontarf in Icelandic Sources

Chapter 5: Kjarvalr Írakonungr and Gaelic Ancestry in Iceland

Chapter 6: Textual Reflexes of Norse–Gaelic Contacts

Works Cited

Index

“This extraordinary volume combines the breadth and ambition of an edition with the clarity of purpose of a monograph (. . . ) A combination of linguistic and literary analysis with a healthy appreciation for contemporary historical chronology results in a novel methodology capable of providing new interpretations and understanding of the thirteenth-century North Atlantic.” (Annie C. Humphrey, in Scandinavian Studies, 92/2, 2020, p. 252-53)

“Overall, Norse-Gaelic Contacts in a Viking World has much to offer scholars interested in detailed textual and linguistic analysis of Irish and Norse texts. There is a comprehensive bibliography for ease of reference, and the inclusion of text and translations for the sources is quite useful (…) Ultimately, this book is most effective in its portrait of a complex and sophisticated multilingual world in which ideas, motifs, and narratives moved as freely and as extensively as the people.” (Larissa Tracy, in The Medieval Review, 20.09.07)